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use of which and that

by mmon » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:14 am
Can anybody please answer this explaining the reasons. I am confused with its official answer.

Poikliotherms can subsist in what would be fatally food-depleted environments; they expend over 70% less energy than homeotherms per pound of body weight which allowed them to survive on far less food.

A. weight which allowed
B. weight, which allows
C. weight that has been allowing
D. weight which has allowed
E. weight allowing

Thanks.
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by asp_2010 » Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:42 am
Is the answer B? Pls confirm.

E is awkward. Which should be preceded by a comma most of the times and hence A and D can be eliminated.
That leaves us with B and C.
B and C convey the idea properly but C is in progressive tense where as B is in simple present tense. We should choose simple tenses compared to other tenses to keep it simple.

Anybody with better explanations, please post the views. Even I want to know about the elimination criteria between B and C.
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by loveusonu » Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:46 am
Nice que dude, really check pronoun and participle concepts, IMO E and here is why.

The sentence intends to say expendition of 70% less energy than.. has allowed them to survive, and not body weight has allowed them to survive. Pronoun 'Which' refers to earliest noun i.e body weight and therefore all the options modifying using 'which' are eliminated

A. weight which allowed -->'which' refering to body weight, wrong meaning.INCORRECT
B. weight, which allows-->'which' refering to body weight, wrong meaning.INCORRECT
C. weight that has been allowing --that, in rare scenarios, can refer to earlier noun, but we have 'energy' as well. INCORRECT
D. weight which has allowed-->same for A & B.
E. weight allowing -->CORRECT Allowing is present participle and can modify whole thought of expendition of less energy.

Whats the OA??
Sonu
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by mmslf75 » Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:20 pm
loveusonu wrote:Nice que dude, really check pronoun and participle concepts, IMO E and here is why.

The sentence intends to say expendition of 70% less energy than.. has allowed them to survive, and not body weight has allowed them to survive. Pronoun 'Which' refers to earliest noun i.e body weight and therefore all the options modifying using 'which' are eliminated

A. weight which allowed -->'which' refering to body weight, wrong meaning.INCORRECT
B. weight, which allows-->'which' refering to body weight, wrong meaning.INCORRECT
C. weight that has been allowing --that, in rare scenarios, can refer to earlier noun, but we have 'energy' as well. INCORRECT
D. weight which has allowed-->same for A & B.
E. weight allowing -->CORRECT Allowing is present participle and can modify whole thought of expendition of less energy.

Whats the OA??
@love

In type of sentence " X of Y, which" . Which may refer to immediate preceding noun OR to the intended logical referent "X (of Y) "

This is the box of nails, which is green in color
This is the box of nails, which are black


WHICH refers to "BOX (of nails) "========== prepositions such as "of" and "in", many times give u the hint

WHICH refers to NAILs

Secondly,

I guess its a rule to have "comma + ing " structure when u want the modifying clause telling something more abt the preceding clause

so i guess E may be untrue here.

any1 anyother comments
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by loveusonu » Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:25 pm
mmslf75 wrote:
@love

In type of sentence " X of Y, which" . Which may refer to immediate preceding noun OR to the intended logical referent "X (of Y) "

This is the box of nails, which is green in color
This is the box of nails, which are black


WHICH refers to "BOX (of nails) "========== prepositions such as "of" and "in", many times give u the hint

WHICH refers to NAILs


I guess its a rule to have "comma + ing " structure when u want the modifying clause telling something more abt the preceding clause

so i guess E may be untrue here.

any1 anyother comments
@mmslf

Firstly, Agreed incase of sub/obj connected by preposition(of,in etc), 'Which' will refer to what follows logically.
However, here both of the possible referent are incorrect to be modified. The sentence doesn't intend to say that.

Secondly, present participle preceded by comma is ideal to modify whole preceding clause. This is 100% a rule, However without comma it can modify verb too, which is subsist and hence able to convey what it wants.

Another thing, we earlier went through whole of OG12/11 but didn't found any sentence where 'which' without a comma before it is correct. I would like if you can find such option and 'that' doesn't server purpose. Hence left over E.

Let me know your comments on it.
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by mmon » Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:46 pm
Thanks a lot guys for all nice explanations. sorry for posting reply so late.
the OA is B.
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by mmon » Fri Jan 08, 2010 2:49 am
I will look for some expert/ instructor to comment on this. I tried to google but not with much luck on this rule.
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by loveusonu » Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:03 am
we still don't have consensus for this one... Experts can you please give us appropriate reasoning...
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by serenity » Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:23 am
It is definitely B.
Here is why.

Poikliotherms can subsist in what would be fatally food-depleted environments; they expend over 70% less energy than homeotherms per pound of body weight which allowed them to survive on far less food.

A. weight which allowed
B. weight, which allows
C. weight that has been allowing
D. weight which has allowed
E. weight allowing

It is essential vs non-essential info. As far as I understand, if you are looking to give non-essential information (meaning info. that when taken out still can allow the sentence to have the same meaning.) - Use "which"

The rest is all about picking the right tenses.
@love
E is wrong because by taking away which allows, you are indicating the its the body which which survives on less food and not the phenomenon of expending less energy because they need less food. make sense?

Check MGMAT SC for which and that usage. It is very thorough.
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by A.Kiran » Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:38 am
I did not know , EXPEND means to utilize.


I thought Expend as Expand... noun....


its a vocabulary thing....



It should be B. not E.
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